Following on from Linda Cracknell’s theme of ‘landscape in fiction,’ our own Damaris gave us an excellent workshop on ‘A Sense of Place in Fiction.’ Damaris has often delighted us with her stories of rural Umbria, where she lived for many years. Her characters, based on the people she met there, give us a flavour of the area. Tonight, however, Damaris used other authors to show they have variously depicted a place they know well.
The extract from Colleen McCullogh’s ‘The Thorn Birds,’ gives us a broad-brush impression of the vastness and extremes of the Australian outback, with its unusual wildlife. Rumer Godden’s ‘Kingfishers Catch Fire,’ gives a more intimate view of a house in rural Kashmir, with its glassless windows and verdant surroundings. In P D James’s crime novel ‘Devices and Desires,’ detective Adam Dalgliesh examines a room in minute detail. These authors all use scents, sounds and feelings as well as visual images.
Damaris encouraged us to view ‘place’ as not merely a backdrop to a story, but perhaps a character in its own right, affecting the people who live there and sometimes, also the plot.
Now it was our turn to describe somewhere we knew well, using all the senses. We were to be specific in detail and, as ever, show, don’t tell.
My contribution featured early morning on a Canadian island shore, with occasional raucous bird calls disturbing the peace, a peach and tangerine sky and chilled fingers wrapped round a fragrant mug of coffee. Carolyn showed us an uneven-floored room, with scented candles, dust motes floating in the sunlight and the muted rattling of computer keys. Jean’s early morning garden was filled with delicate sights and sounds. Nigel took us to a mountain lodge in bad weather and encroaching darkness – a haven for mountaineers – if you can open the door. Carrie luxuriated in a pool, gazing up at a blue sky with both sun and moon.
Damaris next looked at how place may directly affect characters by culture, language and attitudes. The plot of Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ for instance, stems directly from the racial attitudes of the American Deep South at the time.
Place may show in the speech patterns and colloquialisms of its inhabitants. This formed the basis of our next, and to my mind, most difficult exercise. We were to create a dialogue between a ‘local’ and an outsider, trying, if possible, to typify local speech. We had two girls planning a moonlight expedition; a local taking an outsider diving for lobster and scallops; childhood memories of cockney rhyming slang; a bit of Rabbie Burns quoted – certainly typifying place and very appropriate for the date! (25th January)
However, I think Nigel’s dialogue featuring Yorkshire expressions was the most successful in fulfilling the brief.
Next, we considered how to write effectively about a place you have never been. Apart from the obvious (go there) various other sources were suggested. The internet, of course, travel guides, films, newspapers, other authors, museums etc. Following from that, our final two exercises were linked. First we had to place our character(s) in either:-
- The Sahara Desert
- The Amazon Rainforest
- An uninhabited, tropical island
- Antarctica
The rain forest and the tropical island seem to have been preferred. Jean had us wringing with sweat, in a damp and sticky jungle, with unknown and threatening animal sounds. Nigel also had the chitter-chattering of birds and beasts, varied textures underfoot and a mind-blowing variety of greens. Carrie saw the trees as tall soldiers, linking together to hide something, while snakes masqueraded as vines. Carolyn found the scorching sand on her island painful to the feet and had battalions of insects crawling up her leg. After a shipwreck, my character found the island –well any land really – a relief, thought it ‘picture-postcard perfect’ and enjoyed the sound of surf pounding the beach.
In the linked exercise, whatever response we had evoked in the first – fear, exhaustion or relief and enthusiasm – was to be reversed, to give an alternative view of the location. Here, after finding shade (and presumably getting the insects off her leg!) Carolyn was able to appreciate the beauty of her island. My characters, on the other hand, clashed over opinions on survival strategy and came to see the island as a prison.
Thank you, Damaris, for a very busy, but thought-provoking and thoroughly enjoyable, workshop.
Maggie Bolton